Origin

A tap was originally a stopper for a cask. It controlled the flow of liquid, so the same word came to be used for the fitting which controlled the flow of water elsewhere. Drink from a cask that was ready for immediate consumption was on tap. From the 1860s tap began to be used in reference to listening in secretly to a telegraph and then a telephone, from the idea of ‘siphoning off’ information. Tap in the sense of ‘strike lightly’ is a completely different word, which probably represents an imitation of the action in its sound.

They were carrying canes and doing a sort of tap-dance, minus the taps.

They have a metal tap on the toe/ball of the foot section, and another on the heel.

Popular in 19th-century minstrel shows, versions such as ‘buck-and-wing’ (danced vigorously in wooden-soled shoes) and ‘soft-shoe’ (shoes) developed as separate techniques; by 1925 they had merged, and metal taps were attached to shoe heels and toes to produce a more pronounced sound.

Origin

A tap was originally a stopper for a cask. It controlled the flow of liquid, so the same word came to be used for the fitting which controlled the flow of water elsewhere. Drink from a cask that was ready for immediate consumption was on tap. From the 1860s tap began to be used in reference to listening in secretly to a telegraph and then a telephone, from the idea of ‘siphoning off’ information. Tap in the sense of ‘strike lightly’ is a completely different word, which probably represents an imitation of the action in its sound.

Derivatives

tapper

Each ‘Kerasudha’ unit should have at least 100 trees, which will give direct employment to 10 toddy tappers, three women who process the drink and several others who market the produce.

Drawing on evidence from female villagers, one male survivor and a former Malayan police officer, he claims that all of those who died were unarmed rubber tappers and tin miners from the Chinese ethnic minority.

This year's Living Treasure in American Dance Award was presented to 92-year-old tap dancer Leonard Reed, inventor of the Shim Sham Shimmy, now a standard step for all tappers.